October 7, 2008

Another Dispatch From Planet Barnes

Fred Barnes' article in the Weekly Standard has a classic Fred Barnes opening sentence: "Sarah Palin's scintillating success in last week's vice presidential debate with Joe Biden has made her an enormous asset (again) to John McCain's bid for the presidency." (I'm not sure how enormous of an asset you can be when a majority of the electorate deems you unqualified to be president.)

Barnes proceeds to argue:

Her handlers were part of the problem. They gave her index cards on the issues she'd be allowed to discuss, instructed her to stay on message when dealing with the media, told her to echo McCain's thoughts and say little more. When she choked in the television interviews, they blamed her. Even McCain was miffed to find she wasn't reading newspapers and keeping up on daily events. [italics mine.]

I'm not sure what's funnier here: The fact that Palin still isn't reading newspapers, even when her handlers are desperately trying to get her up to speed on current events, or the fact that Barnes implies that McCain is wrong to have been miffed about this. Anyway, now we know why Palin couldn't tell Katie Couric what newspapers or magazines she reads.